AND therefore if to love can be desert. I am not all unworthy. Cheeks as pale As these you see, and trembling knees that fail To bear the burden of a heavy heart, -- This weary minstrel-life that once was girt To climb Aornus, and can scarce avail To pipe now 'gainst the valley nightingale A melancholy music, -- why advert To these things? O Beloved, it is plain I am not of thy worth nor for thy place! And yet, because I love thee, I obtain From that same love this vindicating grace, To live on still in love, and yet in vain, -- To bless thee, yet renounce thee to thy face. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE BEAST OF BURDEN by MARIANNE MOORE YOUTH AND ART by ROBERT BROWNING EPISTLE TO MR. MURRAY by GEORGE GORDON BYRON CANZONET: TO HIS COY LOVE by MICHAEL DRAYTON ON LUCY, COUNTESS OF BEDFORD by BEN JONSON ISAAC AND ARCHIBALD by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON A FORSAKEN GARDEN by ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE THE BALLAD OF CHICKAMAUGA [SEPTEMBER 19-20, 1863] by JAMES MAURICE THOMPSON THE TRIUMPHS OF THY CONQUERING POWER by WILLIAM HILEY BATHURST |